Liverpool Half Marathon 09

The 2009 Liverpool Half Marathon was a great day out for Alice Lewis-Butcher and Alex Hughes who were in high spirits on a most beautiful day in late March.

Full report by Alice Lewis-Butcher

On March 29th Alex and I ran the Liverpool half marathon. It was a beautiful sunny day; we had been a bit worried about how the weather was going to be as earlier in the week the prediction had been for snow showers! We drove down the day before in torrential rain and stayed in Liverpool with our friends Debbie and Steph who would be running with us the next day. We all had a pasta dinner together that night before an early night, Alex & I slept well but our poor friend Debbie only got 2 yours sleep from the excitement and nerves.

The run started and finished at the stadium by the water front. There was such a nice atmosphere when we got there, I think added to by the lovely weather. We were all very nervous and excitement as it had been such a build up to that morning, the race had been nearly all we had thought about and talked about for a good couple of days before. At the start we queued in order of our estimated finish time, there were really useful pacers provided, people from Runner’s World who were mile rate runners. We lined up accordingly, Debbie, Steph and I queued behind the 10 minute miler.

The actual run was a bit hillier then I expected, going through several parks, it was a really nice route though and I saw a lot more of the city than I would usually see when just visiting. I was really happy with my run and felt pretty strong for most of it. Though the last three miles were really though, the end of the course ran along the waterfront, the view didn’t change, it seemed to go on forever!

When I got to the finish line I saw Alex cheering me on, it was such a great moment, and looking at my watch I was really pleased with my time 2 hrs 10. I discovered once I’d found Alex that he had done amazingly finishing in 1hr 34! I was so proud of us all. Debbie and Steph had never run a half marathon before and finished in 2 hrs 14, an especially great time because Debbie got a hip injury at mile 6 and ran in pain for the whole last half.

I really enjoyed the run and recovered so quickly, compared to the Stroud half last October, I really noticed the months of running between the two had helped me so much, I felt such a sense of achievement, I had achieved more then I ever expected of myself.